Newsletter

The Last Words of Richard Holbrooke

Since the traditional media will probably gloss over them, I want to make sure everyone hears about the last words of Richard Holbrooke, US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to members of his family, his last words were, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan." These candid words of a dying, distinguished diplomat are like a real-time WikiLeaks. And they are the truth.

We have been in Afghanistan longer than we were in Vietnam.

We have been in Afghanistan longer than the USSR was in Afghanistan. (They were the previous record-holders.)

We have been in Afghanistan too long.

It's time to bring our troops home, save money and lives, and focus on our own borders and infrastructure. While we're at it, we should bring home most of our troops stationed abroad in countries where there hasn't been war in half a century or more. Germany and Japan come quickly to mind.

And, if we want to get all "founding fathers" on this mess, let's remember that the US of A is -- Constitutionally speaking -- not even supposed to have a standing army, much less an empire, even much less a globe-spanning one.

The real question is: are we too far gone down the military-industrial rabbit hole? Can we ever make it back?